Micah, or MICAIH, as the name is given in Jer. xxvi. 18 (Micayah—i.e. 'Who is like unto Jah?' Vulg. Micheas), the sixth in order of the twelve minor prophets (third in LXX., after Hosea and Amos), is described as 'the Morashtite'—i.e. a native of Moresheth Gath in the lowland of southwestern Judah near Eleutheropolis, and as having prophesied during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, more particularly during that of Heze- kiah, and so as a younger contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos. He is carefully to be distinguished from the Micah or Micaiah of 1 Kings, xxii. 8 et seq., the son of Imlah, who was a prophet of the northern kingdom, contemporary with Elijah, in the reign of Ahab. The Book of Micah is described in the superscription as the word of the Lord that came to Micah which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. It consists of a collection of detached prophecies the phraseology of which is in some cases extremely obscure; no chronological order or other method of arrangement is discernible. The opening passage (i. 2-8) contains a threatening of the divine judgment against Samaria on account of her idolatry; but the rest of the book, as might be expected in a Judean prophet, seems to relate entirely to the southern kingdom, and probably was not spoken or written until after the fall of the kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. The oracle contained in i. 9-16, relating to Judah and Jerusalem, is best interpreted in connection with the Assyrian invasions, threatened and actual, of the Judean lowland, shortly after that date; it is rendered obscure for the English reader by a number of plays upon words which can be appreciated only in the original language. Micah was not, like his contemporary Isaiah, a politician, but he lived (though not in the capital) in the same religious and social environment, and took practically the same view of the position of the people of Jehovah. His whole activity was directed to a work of moral reformation; his book consists of unsparing denunciations of mercenary prophets, rapacious and corrupt priests, cruel and oppressive nobles, and a treacherous, fraudulent, godless people. He went beyond Isaiah in his threatenings, for he did not regard even the holy city as inviolable, but, anticipating Jeremiah by a hundred years, foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (see iii. 12; iv. 9, 10; some critics regard iv. 11-13, a passage which seems to take the opposite view, as an interpolation). Like Isaiah Micah pointed the hopes of the people of Jehovah forward, in noble language, to the establishment of the kingdom of righteousness and peace based on the knowledge and fear of the Lord; he also looked forward to the kingship of a Messiah of the house of David, who (in this Micah was original) like his great ancestor should come forth from Bethlehem. In the opinion of some critics the 6th and 7th chapters of Micah are to be assigned to an anonymous author, writing in the reign of Manasseh, under circumstances similar to those described in 2 Kings, xxi. Wellhausen and others give a still later date to vii. 7-20, where the situation contemplated is in a marked degree similar to that of Isa. xl. et seq. The phrase in vii. 18 ('who is a god like unto thee?') may have suggested the attribution to Micah.
For commentaries on this book, see the works on the minor prophets cited under HOSEA; also the special works by Caspari (1852) and Ryssel (1889), in German; Roorda, in Latin (1869); and Cheyne, in English (1882).